November 11
November 11
The Lord demonstrates again and again that he is able to bring good things out of bad things.
You probably wouldn’t say that division is a good thing or that our inability to cooperate with one another is a blessing. You likely agree that it is disheartening when believers allow differences to hinder our effectiveness when doing kingdom work. Perhaps division is harming your church. Perhaps you are mourning that your family is unable to live at peace. Maybe you are no longer able to serve alongside a certain person. Perhaps disagreements have separated you from a long-term partner in God’s work. Few things are more beautiful than brothers and sisters in the faith living and serving together in unity. But when we are enduring something that is not good, we should not allow ourselves to forget the message of the cross.
The cross looms in redemptive history as a powerful reminder that God can bring eternal good out of something that is very bad. The cross of Jesus Christ was a horrible evil perpetrated against a perfectly innocent man. Tragic injustice allowed life-ending torture. The one who deserved to be worshiped was mocked, reviled, and murdered. Peter says that Jesus was crucified and killed “by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23). But he also says that Jesus was delivered to the cross by “the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (2:23). It was God’s plan that eternal, redeeming good would come out of the evil that was done to Jesus. The cross stands as a reminder that God is able to bring very good things out of very bad things. We cannot allow ourselves to give in to fear and discouragement when we are going through heartbreaking divisions. We must not underestimate what God is able to do in and through these hard moments.
We see this in the ministry of Paul and Barnabas:
After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. (Acts 15:36–41)
We don’t know who was right and who was wrong in the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark, but we do know what God did with it. Because Paul and Barnabas went in separate directions, the gospel of grace was spread even more widely, welcoming perhaps even more people to trust in God’s grace than if these men had worked together.
God brings good things out of bad things, so that no human weakness or failure will ever stop the march of his redeeming grace.